Tangled webs

San Francisco Ballet has a new web site and it’s a big improvement over its former site. You can see it here.

I’ve got a thing about arts groups’ web sites. Most of them seem to be designed by people who don’t actually use web sites to figure out what’s being presented, when and how much it costs to attend.

I do use these sites.

A lot.

But it’s not just because my job makes it necessary to dive into web sites all day long, but because every time I reach something that tells me nothing or forces me to go to multiple pages just to figure out, oh, I don’t know, what time a show starts, I can’t help thinking of potential audience members. In the case of many web sites, it’s basically “beyond here there be dragons” .

As for another big arts organization in San Francisco, wouldn’t it be nice if San Francisco Symphony gave us all a present for its 100th anniversary and make the experience of using its web site a little easier?

I’ve gone on record elsewhere about KQED‘s site, which, somewhere in there, includes the radio show-let I guest on every week, The Do List. But heaven help anyone who just wants to know what’s on TV or the radio. I love KQED and I love PBS, but the KQED web site is textbook case of tech TMI.

There’s no denying that many of these sites are pretty and that there’s a sleigh-load of information on them. But they are often over-freighted with videos, special effects, pop-ups and even sound. Add a suggestion to visit the refreshment stand in the lobby, and you’ve got yourself a multiplex.

I have to assume that my computer is pretty speedy, since I work for a media organization. (I’m sure there’s no truth to the rumor that the Hearst computer system is powered by leftover heiresses in the basement, pedaling away on stationery bikes). Still, you could apply for a new mortgage in the time it takes some of these sites to load.

That was a problem with the old SF Ballet site, as was the problem of just trying to figure out what program was being presented on what night.

I guess I give smaller organizations somewhat of a pass. I was on the Berkeley Art Museum/Pacific Film Archive site the other day, just trying to find out the admission price for an event we were going to feature on the aforementioned Do List. I found it, eventually, by beginning the process of actually buying tickets.

It’s $9.50 for adults, by the way. That’s for the film stuff.

I think.

Anyway, congrats to San Francisco Ballet for taking a huge [dance pun-alert] leap toward greater online accessibility for its patrons with its redesigned web site.